Colin Smith

Colin Smith
La Trobe University · Department of Archaeology and History

About

143
Publications
43,463
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6,080
Citations
Additional affiliations
January 2014 - present
La Trobe University
Position
  • Professor (Associate)

Publications

Publications (143)
Preprint
Cattle have been a valuable economic resource and cultural icon since prehistory. From the initial expansion of domestic cattle into Europe during the Neolithic period, taurine cattle ( Bos taurus ) and their wild ancestor, the aurochs ( B. primigenius ), had overlapping ranges, leading to ample opportunities for mating (whether intended by farmers...
Article
Full-text available
This paper contributes new data on animal management practices from the Greek Archaic and Classical periods. Management strategies and season of birth of caprines from the city of Argilos (ca. 655 − 357 BC) are established through the analysis of stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of sequentially sampled tooth enamel. The results reveal a vari...
Article
Full-text available
In this article, the authors present an analysis of radiocarbon dates from a stratified deposit at the Greek Geometric period settlement of Zagora on the island of Andros, which are among the few absolute dates measured from the period in Greece. The dates assigned to Greek Geometric ceramics are based on historical and literary evidence and are fo...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cattle have been a valuable economic resource and cultural icon since prehistory. From the initial expansion of domestic cattle into Europe during the Neolithic period, taurine cattle (Bos taurus) and their wild ancestor, the aurochs (B. primigenius), had overlapping ranges leading to ample opportunities for intentional and unintentional hybridizat...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cattle have been a valuable economic resource and cultural icon since prehistory. From the initial expansion of domestic cattle into Europe during the Neolithic period, taurine cattle (Bos taurus) and their wild ancestor, the aurochs (B. primigenius), had overlapping ranges leading to ample opportunities for intentional and unintentional hybridizat...
Preprint
Full-text available
Cattle have been a valuable economic resource and cultural icon since prehistory. From the initial expansion of domestic cattle into Europe during the Neolithic period, taurine cattle (Bos taurus) and their wild ancestor, the aurochs (B. primigenius), had overlapping ranges leading to ample opportunities for intentional and unintentional hybridizat...
Article
This study investigates diet heterogeneity among Chinchorro and Inca adults and subadults living on the northern Chilean coast of the Atacama Desert before and after the introduction of maize cultivation. This is achieved by amino acid carbon isotope analysis and bulk carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur isotope analysis of 1-cm sequential segments of sca...
Article
Full-text available
We undertook a large-scale study of Neolithic and Bronze Age human mobility on Crete using biomolecular methods (isotope analysis, DNA), with a particular focus on sites dating to the Late Bronze Age (‘Late Minoan’) period. We measured the strontium and sulphur isotope values of animal remains from archaeological sites around the island of Crete to...
Article
Full-text available
The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here we present a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to the late 7th and early 8th centuries, t...
Article
This paper utilizes the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of bulk animal bone collagen to better understand animal management practices in Archaic and Classical period Argilos in northern Greece. The results from Argilos are compared with data from other sites in northern Greece to provide new insights into herd management in the regi...
Article
Full-text available
Long before the East‐West ‘Silk Road’ appeared, cultural communication as well as exchanges of materials and technologies had existed between different populations across the Eurasian steppe. Xinjiang, located at a crossroads of the East and the West, is particularly important for exploring human interactions. The present paper contributes to this...
Article
Bulk δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C values of proteinaceous tissues are being increasingly used in bioarchaeological studies to elucidate the physio-pathological status of ancient individuals. This method has not always been successful. The present study aims to explore the novel use of single amino acid carbon isotope analysis in palaeopathology by investigating t...
Article
Full-text available
Groundwaters host vital resources playing a key role in the near future. Subterranean fauna and microbes are crucial in regulating organic cycles in environments characterized by low energy and scarce carbon availability. However, our knowledge about the functioning of groundwater ecosystems is limited, despite being increasingly exposed to anthrop...
Article
Full-text available
The Early Iron Age was an important period of Greek history during which the Greek city states emerged and the two earliest works of western literature, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, were likely composed. This paper introduces the results of faunal isotope analyses (carbon and nitrogen) from the settlement of Zagora on Andros (900–700 BC), the first s...
Preprint
Full-text available
The Middle East plays a central role in human history harbouring a vast diversity of ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, much remains to be understood about past and present genomic diversity in this region. Here, we present for the first time, a multidisciplinary bioarchaeological analysis of two individuals dated to late 7th and early...
Article
Full-text available
Subterranean ecosystems host highly adapted aquatic invertebrate biota which play a key role in sustaining groundwater ecological functioning and hydrological dynamics. However, functional biodiversity studies in groundwater environments, the main source of unfrozen freshwater on Earth, are scarce, probably due to the cryptic nature of the systems....
Article
Archaeologists and palaeoecologists are increasingly turning to stable isotope analysis (δ ¹³ C, δ ¹⁸ O) of fossil bioapatite to examine interactions of human and animal populations. However, relatively few investigations have focussed on the identification of natural variation in comparable modern populations, particularly within the Australian co...
Article
Stable isotope analysis of archaeological human remains is routinely applied to explore dietary habits and mobility patterns. The isotope information pertaining to the period prior to death may help in identifying locals and non-locals, especially when investigating individuals from the same funerary context but believed to have been highly mobile...
Article
Full-text available
Significance The gene pool of modern Europeans was shaped through prehistoric migrations that reached the Western Mediterranean last. Obtaining biomolecular data has been challenging due to poor preservation related to adverse climatic conditions in this region. Here, we study the impact of prehistoric (Neolithic–Bronze Age) migrations in Iberia by...
Data
The gene pool of modern Europeans was shaped through prehistoric migrations that reached the Western Mediterranean last. Obtaining biomolecular data has been challenging due to poor preservation related to adverse climatic conditions in this region. Here, we study the impact of prehistoric (Neolithic–Bronze Age) migrations in Iberia by analyzing ge...
Book
Full-text available
Un villaggio abbandonato circa cinquecento anni fa, un'indagine antropologica sui resti scheletrici di un uomo vissuto in quel villaggio tra XIV e XV secolo, una proposta metodologica multidisciplinare e interdisciplinare per riflettre su temi, modelli e processi virtuosi di conoscenza e valorizzazione dei beni culturali. Questi gli ingredienti del...
Poster
Full-text available
Speleothems preserve organic matter that is derived from both the surface soil and cave environments. This organic matter can be used to understand paleoclimate and paleoenvironments. However, a stable and quick micro-analysis method to measure the δ13C signals from speleothem organic matter separate from the total δ13C remains absent. And speleoth...
Poster
Full-text available
This investigation aims to assess the biogeochemical patterns within the stygofaunal community of two aquifers (Sturt Meadows and Laverton Downs) in the Yilgarn region of WA, by focusing on two main objectives: identify the energy sources within the ecosystem via δ13C of AAs, and recover quantified information about trophic position of various subt...
Article
Full-text available
Stable isotope analysis of mummified human hair allows the reconstruction of the recent life histories of individuals that died thousands of years ago. The objective of this study is to improve the resolution of hair palaeodietary reconstruction by sequentially analyzing 0.5 cm segments of a single hair using liquid chromatography-isotope ratio mas...
Chapter
Bone diagenesis is a set of processes by which the organic and mineral phases and the structure of bone are transformed during fossilization. To understand how these processes have affected skeletal material recovered from Azokh Caves (particularly the organic preservation), we measured ‘diagenetic parameters’ of skeletal material from Holocene, La...
Article
Full-text available
The exact timing, route, and process of the initial peopling of the Americas remains uncertain despite much research. Archaeological evidence indicates the presence of humans as far as southern Chile by 14.6 thousand years ago (ka), shortly after the Pleistocene ice sheets blocking access from eastern Beringia began to retreat. Genetic estimates of...
Article
Strands of human hair excavated from Basketmaker II Turkey Pen Ruins in Utah were examined using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis and show that these individuals were heavily reliant on maize but their diet fluctuated over a period of months. Through serial bulk carbon and nitrogen analysis and serial single amino acid carbon isotope ana...
Poster
Full-text available
Los análisis de isótopos estables han resultado una exitosa herramienta en estudios de paleodieta. Sin embargo, la ampliamente utilizada técnica bulk presenta algunas limitaciones respecto a la resolución de dietas complejas y a la cantidad de muestra necesaria. Los análisis isotópicos de compuestos específicos permiten medir las proporciones isotó...
Research
Full-text available
How and when the Americas were populated remains contentious. Using ancient and modern genome-wide data, we find that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans, including Athabascans and Amerindians, entered the Americas as a single migration wave from Siberia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago (KYA), and after no more than 8,000-year is...
Article
Full-text available
How and when the Americas were populated remains contentious. Using ancient and modern genome-wide data, we found that the ancestors of all present-day Native Americans, including Athabascans and Amerindians, entered the Americas as a single migration wave from Siberia no earlier than 23 thousand years ago (ka) and after no more than an 8000-year i...
Article
Full-text available
It has been demonstrated that the protein osteocalcin can survive in bone in the archaeological record, and postulated that it has the potential to survive over geological time periods. The precise mechanism for this longevity of survival is not yet fully understood, and has not been extensively studied in comparison to other diagenetic aspects of...
Presentation
Stalagmites are well established as accurate archives for paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental records, with inorganic proxies being widely used. Organic proxies are a growing field, providing access to information stored in a separate carbon pool, and relating to microbial activity, vegetation cover, and temperature. However, the key factors contro...
Chapter
The pace of revolution in analytical chemistry in the field of Geosciences has been dramatic over the recent decades and includes fundamental developments that have become common place in many related and unrelated disciplines. The analytical tools (nano to macro-scale from stable to radioactive isotopes to synchrotron imaging) used have been appli...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents the first use of bone collagen stable isotope analyses for the purpose of reconstructing historical animal husbandry and trade practices in Australia. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses of 51 domesticate and commensal specimens demonstrate that meats consumed at the mid to late nineteenth-century Commonwealth Block site...
Article
Full-text available
Isotopic and molecular analysis on human, fauna and pottery remains can provide valuable new insights into the diets and subsistence practices of prehistoric populations. These are crucial to elucidate the resilience of social-ecological systems to cultural and environmental change. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human in...
Article
The analysis of δ13C in speleothem calcite is established as a palaeoenvironmental proxy, but records can often be complex to interpret due to multiple controls on the signal. Here we present a novel palaeoenvironmental application of non-purgeable organic carbon (NPOC) δ13C analysis and compound-specific isotope analysis (CSIA) to speleothems, and...
Poster
Full-text available
Analysis of hair samples represents a way of investigating dietary changes over a short period of an individual’s life, as hair keratin records the diet sequentially as it grows. Hair samples can provide more information than bone collagen, such as seasonal changes in diet, exploitation of multiple resources over time, or even infer movement patter...
Article
The determination of δ13C values in speleothems is of considerable importance in palaeoenvironmental research, but has focussed solely on analysis of the carbonate. Here we demonstrate a new method for analysing the δ13C values of organic matter (OM) trapped in speleothems, utilising flow injection liquid chromatography–isotope ratio mass spectrome...
Article
This study investigates the application of sulphur isotope ratios (δ34S) in combination with carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) ratios to understand the influence of environmental sulphur on the isotopic composition of archaeological human and faunal remains from Roman era sites in Oxfordshire, UK. Humans (n = 83), terrestrial animals (n = 11), and...
Article
Full-text available
This research presents the individual amino acid δ13C values in bone collagen of humans (n = 9) and animals (n = 27) from two prehistoric shell midden sites in Korea. We obtained complete baseline separation of 16 of the 18 amino acids found in bone collagen by using liquid chromatography–isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LC–IRMS). The isotopic resu...
Article
Early diagenesis, spanning the time a few years after death, is crucial to later fossilization, because the former may determine the success of the latter. The external environment in which bones (and fossils) have been altered is critical to early diagenesis and fossilization processes. Alteration of bones by the former may determine the successfu...
Article
Full-text available
Here we respond to the comment by Nowell and Horstwood (2009) written in response to our 2008 paper where we presented the first results of the application of laser ablation strontium isotope analysis to a fossil hominin. Although we are pleased that the paper has attracted so much interest, including from researchers outside the field such as Nowe...
Article
Full-text available
Goldberg et al. use data from micromorphological and Fourier transform infrared analyses to argue that Paisley Cave pre-Clovis coprolite 1374-5/5D-31-2 is of herbivore, rather than human, origin. We argue that the diagnostic capability of the techniques used by Goldberg et al. are limited, and we present new genetic data that support our original c...
Conference Paper
Carbon isotopes of organic (collagen) and inorganic (carbonate) fractions of bone fossil remains are routinely used to investigate human and animal diets. The type of information that can be obtained from the two components is complementary. Collagen carbon is mainly related to the dietary protein sources, however non-essential amino acids can refl...
Article
We report a three-phase chromatographic method for the separation and analysis of delta(13)C values of underivatized amino acids from biological proteins (keratin, collagen, and casein) using liquid chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LC-IRMS). Both precision and accuracy of delta(13)C values for standard amino acid mixtures over the ra...
Article
Full-text available
Azokh is a limestone cave site in the Lesser Caucasus. The cave has an almost continuous stratigraphic record rich in fossils, which has produced evidence of human activity and tools spanning middle Pleistocene to historic times. A mitldle Pleistocene human mandible fragment was found by an Azeri-Soviet research team that had originally excavated t...
Article
Bone porosity plays an important role in the taphonomic trajectory of bones. Porosity analysis of archaeological material can indicate diagenetic events in the bones taphonomic history. Furthermore, measuring the porosity of modern bone material can potentially provide a method for assessing the relative likelihood of survival for different skeleta...
Article
Full-text available
We used authentication tests developed for ancient DNA to evaluate claims by Asara et al. (Reports, 13 April 2007, p. 280) of collagen peptide sequences recovered from mastodon and Tyrannosaurus rex fossils. Although the mastodon samples pass these tests, absence of amino acid composition data, lack of evidence for peptide deamidation, and associat...
Article
Full-text available
Diagenetic changes in archaeological bone are known to influence the data derived from such material and have thus been the subject of numerous studies. A number of general trends have been observed, but many of the processes that occur are still not fully understood. We present here the analysis of 195 bones excavated from 32 sites in five differe...
Article
We have applied cluster analysis to mercury intrusion porosimetry data from 219 archaeological bones (121 human and 98 animal) and soil chemistry data from 219 accompanying soil samples (1 per bone sample), to investigate the influence of soil chemistry on bone preservation. The samples chosen for the study were obtained from sites ranging in time...
Article
Full-text available
We report here direct evidence for Neanderthal mobility through the measurement of strontium isotope ratios in tooth enamel using laser-ablation, which allows us to use much smaller samples than traditional methods. There has been a long-standing debate over the extent of Neanderthal mobility, with some arguing for Neanderthals having a very limite...
Article
Ancient DNA has the potential of adding the dimension of time to genetic studies. With a suitable sample set it should be possible to follow genetic changes over time as they occur. To date, only a limited number of ancient DNA studies that cover a large time span have been published, and all of these studies have used mitochondrial DNA. Here, we e...
Article
Full-text available
In this study, we have used a technique designed to target short fragments containing informative mitochondrial substitutions to extend the temporal limits of DNA recovery and study the molecular phylogeny of Ursus deningeri. We present a cladistic analysis using DNA recovered from 400 kyr old U. deningeri remains, which demonstrates U. deningeri's...
Data
Correction for ‘Cattle domestication in the Near East was followed by hybridization with aurochs bulls in Europe’ by Anders Gotherstrom, Cecilia Anderung, Linda Hellborg, Rengert Galil, Elburg Colin Smith, Dan G. Bradley and Hans Ellegren (Proc. R. Soc. B 272 , 2345–2350. (doi: [10.1098/rspb.2005.3243][1])). Table 3 in the print version of this pa...